[From the diaries by susanbhu]
Because apparently they feel the need to teach the Bible in public school:
The school board in this West Texas town voted unanimously to add a Bible class to its high school curriculum.
Hundreds of people, most of them supporters of the proposal, packed the board meeting Tuesday night. More than 6,000 Odessa residents had signed a petition supporting the class. More after the fold . . .
Not that this has anything to do with religion. No, of course not.
No, it’s purely for its vital educational value:
“How can students understand Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’ or Handel’s ‘Messiah’ if they don’t understand the reference from which they came?” Johnson said.
How indeed? Thank you Odessa. Once again Texas has led the way in showing us the face of true educational reform. Why, makes me want to pull out my Bible to check on all that Middle Eastern geography right now.
The only good point here, and I’m seriously reaching, it that actually reading the bible may set off some backlash. I was a pretty uncritical christian until I read the actual book-yes, cover to cover.
On the other hand I’m pretty sure it will be heavily “interpreted” to confirm to bible belt fundamentalism. Too bad, this is getting more and more surreal.
I’m afraid though that they won’t read the Bible objectively because they’ll be instructed heavily in how to interpret and receive what they are reading.
…but this course will, I suspect, lack some aspects of critical study that any good secondary-school class on any subject should encompass.
For instance, which Bible will be used in class? Will there be lessons comparing different translations of the Bible? Will there be a discussion of how the clerics of 1680 years ago chose which books would be in the Bible? Will the seven deuterocanonical books Catholics include in the Old Testament be covered (the books Protestants call the Apocrypha)? Will the curriculum include discussion of what scholars – say, those in The Jesus Seminar – consider to be the origins of the Gospels?
What about the work on the Dead Sea Scrolls done by scholars like Robert Eisenmann, who views the direction taken by the Church after Jesus’s death to be quite different than what Jesus proposed? What about the Gnostic gospels that were mostly burned, but turned up two millennia later sealed in jars?
A high school Bible study class that covered all these topics would go a long way to instilling in students skepticism about religious claims and official wisdom in general. That would be a good thing in a world where so many buy what authorities tell them.
I agree with you.
But in practice, here is how I see it.
Every child in America is expected to receive an education by law. Some people home school. But we need tuition-free public schools that are acceptable to everybody.
Many people do not want their children to be skeptics. And that is just a built-in barrier to encouraging detached religious study in public schools.
It will only result in angry parents and an angry backlash.
…with you. But we on the left could help dismantle the frame so often used against us that we’re “anti-Bible” by suggesting the kind of course I’ve outlined.
Then, those who seek to have prosyletizing covertly taught as a literature class would have to expose themselves and what they really seek: a public school kowtow to their version of Holy Scripture. I know this wouldn’t shut up the zealots, but it would maybe let the moderates see them for what they are instead of believing that maybe the zealots are right about the left.
Like you I didn’t really know what exactly was in the bible and truthfully didn’t much care. When I did start reading it critically was pretty astounded at some of the crap and just plain stupid stuff that is in there.
Which is why atheists encourage people to read the bible for themselves. They believe if you do you’ll come away pretty disallusioned or questioning a lot of the stories starting with the two different creation stories in the very first two chapters.
But I can just about imagine what kind of subjective stories or things taken out of context would be taught and how each teacher could basically infuse his own views on the class…this just sucks-to use one of my high tech phrases.
Christ on a crutch…is there no end to these idiot justifications for teaching the bible-that would be the only and only christian bible of course- in public schools.
If some kid hasn’t heard of the Last Supper as in painting then their education is sadly lacking anyway.
well there I go complaining about idiots and then didn’t check my post…so I meant to write ‘one and only’. Slap me upside the head with some loaves/fishes ok.
you think they don’t know this? They KNOW they are Violating Lemon but the don’t care. Still I think the best way to fight back is to take them at their word. We should come up with a list of other sacred works that are vital to the student’s understanding of the greater culture and demand they be taught as well.
Here’s my Short List:
The Koran: Well you certainly can’t fully understand Algebra, not to mention basic astronomy and medicine, without an appreciation of the source document of the culture that produced them. Now since its utter heresy to translate the Holy Koran, we’ll also have to hold Arabic language classes as well.
The Bhagvad-Gita: essential to fully appreciate history, When Robert Oppenheimer witness the first nuclear explosion he exclaimed “I am Become Death, the Destroyer of Worlds” how can you fully appreciate the importance of that statement, and that moment in history withouta class on the 23,000 page epic poem from which the quote comes?
The Kama Sutra: Well they ARE teenagers after all, and ….
Celtic Druidic source documents: hmmm since they really weren’t fans of writing thinks down we’ll have to substitute Gardenerian writings and Drawing down the Moon. But you hAVE to have these, neither Christmas nor Easter makes any sense at all without understanding the Pagan traditions they co-opted.
Writings of Aleister Crowley: How could any teenager even begin to appreciate the Paige/Plant oeuvre of Led Zepplin songs without reading Aleister? It is simply essential to their understanding of these cultural giants
hmmm what else do we need on the list?
I agree, but I’m not sure you even need other religions in there. I mean, have you actually ever LOOKED at the alleged 10 Commandments, for example?
Of course it was a private HS. It was important subject matter because, surprise, the Bible is a pretty important cultural reference point.
Of course that meant applying critical method to what we read (i.e. analysing Old Testament text for P,J and Y sources.) This sort of thing makes fundies heads explode, so I say hang them by their own petards.
I think there are few things more dangerous to Fundamentalism than to encourage intelligent reading of the Bible.
Plus, there is no Constitutional reason not to teach about the Bible in public schools, so opposing it appears spiteful. I would keep the powder dry, go along with adding the Bible to the curricula, and use the establishment clause to make sure that the content of the Bible classes has no doctrinal content- which by forcing the teaching of the Bible as a Book will eventually undermine the Fundies.
Or not.
I agree entirely that the biggest stick to beat the fundies with would be objective close examination of the Bible. BUT the problem is, any school board nuts enough to pass a rule like this is also nuts and dumb enough to make sure there will be nothing but proselytizing in the classroom.
However, I’ve thought for a long time that instead of being so scared of public religion, we’d do better to welcome religion into the public sphere and treat it with all the scepticism and analysis that all political documents deserve.
the curriculum, it would cause massive ruptures in the Religious Right alliance. Just the choice between using the King James or other versions of the text has caused numerous fatal civil disturbances throughout American history.
Biblical interpretation, particularly methodology (i.e. curricula), is also pretty much the driving force between protestant sectarianism as well. I’d anticipate that once this stuff gets played out- even stupid school boards will be stuck teaching very dry critical method and “bible as literature” curricula. Both of which, IMHO, are insidious to Fundamentalism.
these are kids and teenagers we’re talking about here. No matter how backwater the district, there’s going to be bunch that love nothing better than dissing the Bible, if for no other reason than that it’s such an easy target. Jesus knew what he was talking about when he advised the religious to pray in their closets. Fundamentalism can’t stand the light of reason and examination. Even more, it can’t stand ridicule.
So maybe instead of behaving like frightened virgins, liberal types should say, “OK, go ahead and teach the Bible as literature. But try supressing any student’s opinion, no matter how “blasphemous”, and we’ll be all over you with lawsuits and publicity that will make the Schiavo farce look like a love fest.”
We don’t go walking into churches on Sunday denouncing the silliness of their beliefs. But when those beliefs are put in the marketplace, the public sphere, anything goes. Our job will be to make sure that “anything” is possible without pressure, recrimination, or punishment.
Faced with a real threat of objective “fair” treatment for their dogma, the theocrats are going to drop the subject like it never came up.
featured in Friday Night Lights? If so, their track record for educational decisions (re: multi-million dollar football stadium etc) isn’t all that good to begin with…